Listen: Wo Chan reads june 8, the smiley barista remembers my name

"We spoke Oke with wo Chan about their poem. June eight the Smiley Barista remembers my name. I was trying to write a sonnet day about my day and I was thinking about that practice as a morning practice with a you. It was one of Japan's most rewarding writing experiences. But it wasn't easy ahead. This friend who is a horrible of and he was saying you know the only essential fear that people actually have is fear of the unknown in writing. You're constantly poking against the unknown. Chen says they're too scared to write all the time. And that's how you know you're writer because it's terrifying terrifying to do it and so I would always start by just saying like what I did or something I did and then as it was going it gave me permission to start asking bigger questions. Here's wo Chan reading June eight. The Smiley Barista remembers my name. Beauty on earth so blue even the cheese flowers a culture with no democracy yesterday for example. I ate the same sandwich I eat every week. EGGPLANT roasted red pepper. I only a for Kacha jammed full by Ruger capers. sweaty in Brown's butter. How have come to love routine? I'm thirsty and a bash. It the fabric of my childhood underwear triple axels and the wind while how the whole neighborhood watches me. Do emails go to therapy. She shed revenge for forgiveness. I said it I forgive you. Slipping like a key beneath adore. Were never was a house. Attached is it beauty on earth so blue each side stalled your touched for standing the sun. It's fat Macula born down grips. I wish I saw I fear here. I heard I dream like an emotion. This is not a feeling this can be I think a conversation. There's there's so much sensory wonderfulness in this poem. If you are not hungry yet you will be when you hear the description of the sandwich. I think what's really interesting about this poem as well. It reaches back to the Patriarch in sonnet. Although it's not doing the strict you you know rhyme scheme of that it is divided into an octave in assessed at light the traditional patrols on it is and it does kind of have at that moment of discovery switch. You know what we call the Volta in the sonnet where something turns something changes and it seems to me what what happens to really turn this poem and give us a real revelation. Is this concept of forgiveness. She shed revenge for forgiveness. I set it. I forgive you and that sense of that says stat moment reaching back up into the the previous part of the poem the eight lines that begin it really That really comes back to succumb to interpret and to reveal everything thing that the poet has been enjoying in the first eight lines of the poem. It seems like one of the things were getting from this palm at at least is that forgiveness can enable you to experience the world differently and to redouble your pleasures that you already taken the world. It's a curious process to and what I love about this poem. How it got me to think about it because I'm sure many people I have this feeling the same every week? And when you do that you can ask yourself like. Why am I doing exactly the same there? There is a sort of ritualistic daily life that we rely on and yet moment to moment that sameness is overturned overturned by so many different kinds of things whether it could be something or somebody that you see or a memory that comes back. That's part of the the sort the fabric of your life or the neighborhood. Everybody watching each other and there's something very alive and it. It's not the kind of ritual ritual that locks you down what I like is it opens you up. especially that sense of urban life. And it's sort of descends wonderfully wonderfully from Frank O'hara it does feel like you know you know Harris Poems. He's kind of writing to and for his own sort. Sort of group has friends. His neighborhood and this has the virtues of of inaugural poem exploit its open wide to all kinds of different people and open wide to the kind of beauty and forgiveness that as the end of the poem says in. Volta is not a feeling feeling this can be. I think a conversation which is so ingenious because it can be a conversation. So it's not making taking some kind of presumption but I like even that it says I think which is conversational but it's also literally true and be I think a conversation sation because you have to think conversation into existence and ultimately that's what this palm does it sort of opens up from being thirsty and abashed. You could almost feel the poet kind of hunkering down you know at a meal. And then in the it's surprisingly generously wonderfully at the end. It's sort of throws open. The poet throws open their arms. Ready to keep on to keep going on to survive to see what happened. Um to taste what's possible. Yeah absolutely and we know that this is dated June eight. We know from speaking going to the poet that this was a series of poems that the poet wrote in that sense of. There's something in every day. Say That you can write about that. Can Be part of a palm is just really inspiring and again I love that idea of of Sameness routine habits. You know. These are things that we don't always think about and yet in a poem we can can and they're going to resonate and taste and smell and all those those things differently and I agree. There's a kind of joy joy that Frank O'Hara took in his walks and his movements around the neighborhood his conversations with his friends and you know the sense and so here of beauty on earth so blue even that she's flowers a culture with no democracy. Took me a few reasons to to get past. Has that first line break. But the the notion that the flowering cheeses culture with no democracy was something to be celebrated as sort of like got joke in the first first couple of lines their ranks. We think oh a culture with no democracy. That's not that's not good but in the cheese culture it actually it could aid so You know the idea of grasping on to something and saying okay. This is not a metaphor. Actually I believe this is a sensory experience having to do with how fully I'm experiencing my lunch and my life in the neighborhood and my world it Kinda does make you WANNA go out. Side skirts. Look around and you know for me just that as it progresses is towards the structure or routines of its end as a sonnet. It flowers there where it's so beautiful. I said it I forgive you. Slipping like a key beneath the door where never was a house attached and then as if that's not ravishing enough you know beauty on hurt so blue. Each aside stalled your touched for standing the sun. That's so arresting for standing in the sun and it sort of helps you keep your feet on the ground a little bit the two so I find this to be. Just a a wonderfully memorable heartening and inspiring. I might read it. You know over and over again in my routine or something but you know as you said earlier. There's something in this house on. It should work. That makes you go back beginning beginning and read again and light of we've ended"

The Poetry Magazine Podcast

Wo Chan reads june 8, the smiley barista remembers my name

Automatic TRANSCRIPT

We spoke Oke with wo Chan about their poem. June eight the Smiley Barista remembers my name. I was trying to write a sonnet day about my day and I was thinking about that practice as a morning practice with a you. It was one of Japan's most rewarding writing experiences. But it wasn't easy ahead. This friend who is a horrible of and he was saying you know the only essential fear that people actually have is fear of the unknown in writing. You're constantly poking against the unknown. Chen says they're too scared to write all the time. And that's how you know you're writer because it's terrifying terrifying to do it and so I would always start by just saying like what I did or something I did and then as it was going it gave me permission to start asking bigger questions. Here's wo Chan reading June eight. The Smiley Barista remembers my name. Beauty on earth so blue even the cheese flowers a culture with no democracy yesterday for example. I ate the same sandwich I eat every week. EGGPLANT roasted red pepper. I only a for Kacha jammed full by Ruger capers. sweaty in Brown's butter. How have come to love routine? I'm thirsty and a bash. It the fabric of my childhood underwear triple axels and the wind while how the whole neighborhood watches me. Do emails go to therapy. She shed revenge for forgiveness. I said it I forgive you. Slipping like a key beneath adore. Were never was a house. Attached is it beauty on earth so blue each side stalled your touched for standing the sun. It's fat Macula born down grips. I wish I saw I fear here. I heard I dream like an emotion. This is not a feeling this can be I think a conversation. There's there's so much sensory wonderfulness in this poem. If you are not hungry yet you will be when you hear the description of the sandwich. I think what's really interesting about this poem as well. It reaches back to the Patriarch in sonnet. Although it's not doing the strict you you know rhyme scheme of that it is divided into an octave in assessed at light the traditional patrols on it is and it does kind of have at that moment of discovery switch. You know what we call the Volta in the sonnet where something turns something changes and it seems to me what what happens to really turn this poem and give us a real revelation. Is this concept of forgiveness. She shed revenge for forgiveness. I set it. I forgive you and that sense of that says stat moment reaching back up into the the previous part of the poem the eight lines that begin it really That really comes back to succumb to interpret and to reveal everything thing that the poet has been enjoying in the first eight lines of the poem. It seems like one of the things were getting from this palm at at least is that forgiveness can enable you to experience the world differently and to redouble your pleasures that you already taken the world. It's a curious process to and what I love about this poem. How it got me to think about it because I'm sure many people I have this feeling the same every week? And when you do that you can ask yourself like. Why am I doing exactly the same there? There is a sort of ritualistic daily life that we rely on and yet moment to moment that sameness is overturned overturned by so many different kinds of things whether it could be something or somebody that you see or a memory that comes back. That's part of the the sort the fabric of your life or the neighborhood. Everybody watching each other and there's something very alive and it. It's not the kind of ritual ritual that locks you down what I like is it opens you up. especially that sense of urban life. And it's sort of descends wonderfully wonderfully from Frank O'hara it does feel like you know you know Harris Poems. He's kind of writing to and for his own sort. Sort of group has friends. His neighborhood and this has the virtues of of inaugural poem exploit its open wide to all kinds of different people and open wide to the kind of beauty and forgiveness that as the end of the poem says in. Volta is not a feeling feeling this can be. I think a conversation which is so ingenious because it can be a conversation. So it's not making taking some kind of presumption but I like even that it says I think which is conversational but it's also literally true and be I think a conversation sation because you have to think conversation into existence and ultimately that's what this palm does it sort of opens up from being thirsty and abashed. You could almost feel the poet kind of hunkering down you know at a meal. And then in the it's surprisingly generously wonderfully at the end. It's sort of throws open. The poet throws open their arms. Ready to keep on to keep going on to survive to see what happened. Um to taste what's possible. Yeah absolutely and we know that this is dated June eight. We know from speaking going to the poet that this was a series of poems that the poet wrote in that sense of. There's something in every day. Say That you can write about that. Can Be part of a palm is just really inspiring and again I love that idea of of Sameness routine habits. You know. These are things that we don't always think about and yet in a poem we can can and they're going to resonate and taste and smell and all those those things differently and I agree. There's a kind of joy joy that Frank O'Hara took in his walks and his movements around the neighborhood his conversations with his friends and you know the sense and so here of beauty on earth so blue even that she's flowers a culture with no democracy. Took me a few reasons to to get past. Has that first line break. But the the notion that the flowering cheeses culture with no democracy was something to be celebrated as sort of like got joke in the first first couple of lines their ranks. We think oh a culture with no democracy. That's not that's not good but in the cheese culture it actually it could aid so You know the idea of grasping on to something and saying okay. This is not a metaphor. Actually I believe this is a sensory experience having to do with how fully I'm experiencing my lunch and my life in the neighborhood and my world it Kinda does make you WANNA go out. Side skirts. Look around and you know for me just that as it progresses is towards the structure or routines of its end as a sonnet. It flowers there where it's so beautiful. I said it I forgive you. Slipping like a key beneath the door where never was a house attached and then as if that's not ravishing enough you know beauty on hurt so blue. Each aside stalled your touched for standing the sun. That's so arresting for standing in the sun and it sort of helps you keep your feet on the ground a little bit the two so I find this to be. Just a a wonderfully memorable heartening and inspiring. I might read it. You know over and over again in my routine or something but you know as you said earlier. There's something in this house on. It should work. That makes you go back beginning beginning and read again and light of we've ended